Wireless telecommunications in the form of pagers, cell phones and their supporting communications networks have led to changes in the ways that people meet, socialize and communicate. The market penetration of cell phones in parts of Europe has resulted in cell phone ownership being a norm, rather than an exception. This circumstance has led to changes in the ways that people, particularly the young, arrange to meet for social interaction. It is now common, for example, that a person will initially contact a friend or friends via cell phone, and after inquiring of each other's present location, mutually decide on an intermediate meeting place (such as a coffee shop, restaurant, mall or park) for further in-person social interaction. By contrast, prior means of communication did not support such ad-hoc, spontaneous meeting and gathering. In-person meetings previously might depend upon chance encounters of friends in public places, prior arrangement (e.g., via voice mail, message on a bulletin board, etc.), exhaustive searching (e.g., visiting or telephone calling several locations where the friend(s) are routinely found), etc.
Yet, current mobile telecommunications technologies still do not adequately facilitate people's social interaction. The just-described initiating of in-person meetings via cell phone is limited in that the friend or friends called may be geographically distant (e.g., in a remote part of the community, or even “out-of-town”) or otherwise occupied, while other friends not called may be immediately available and “just-around-the-corner.” This lack of information results in many missed opportunities for in-person social interaction. Further, this one-to-one cell phone calling requires an exponentially increasing number of interactions as the group size increases.
Other known telecommunications technologies also fail to focus on or solve this problem of facilitating opportunities for in-person meeting. For example, several companies now provide instant messaging services on the Internet (e.g., the MSN Messenger of Microsoft Corporation, ICQ, the AOL Instant Messenger of America Online, Inc., Yahoo Messenger, etc.). These instant messaging services facilitate communications via private Internet “chat” (i.e., exchange of instantaneous person-to-person text messages over the Internet). The users first construct lists of other users who have mutually agreed to participate in instant messaging with each other. The users also are required to download and install a client software program on their computers used for Internet access. Upon the computer logging on to the Internet, this client software program notifies an instant messaging server operated by the providing company that the respective user is on the Internet. A user can also set an availability indicator, e.g., to indicate she is “on the phone.” The users are then notified by the instant messaging server which users on their lists are “on-line” and available for instant messaging “chat.” More generally, users are alerted to the on-line state of their friends, e.g. which are “online”, “busy” or “on the phone.” Although useful for promoting communications between remotely located users of the Internet, these instant messaging services also fail to facilitate opportunities for in-person meeting.
Also available is a match-making device, called the “Lovegety.” This key-chain suspended, egg-shaped device comes in male (blue) and female (pink) versions, and can be set to any of three modes indicating its user's desire for “talk,” “karaoke,” or “get2” (i.e., romance). When opposite gender models come within transmission range (i.e., about 15 feet), the devices emit an audible alarm. Also, if the two models are set to the same mode (such as, both on “talk” mode), the devices flash green. Again, the Lovegety fails to adequately facilitate opportunities to socialize in-person with friends and others known to you.
The present invention is directed towards providing user-contextual information services based on place and people via mobile telecommunications devices, such as to facilitate in-person social interaction with those that the user has established relationships. In an embodiment of the invention described herein, a place-specific buddy list service is an information service provided to users on a data communications network, which may be a wireless telecommunications network accessed by users from mobile personal information devices such as cell phone, pager, personal digital assistant (PDA), notebook computer, handheld computer, or other mobile personal embedded networked computing and/or telecommunications device—although other access devices and communications mediums also can be used. The information service processes information as to the people with whom the user has established relationships and the location of those people as reported by their mobile personal devices, so as to then provide place-specific people notifications to the user as well as user-initiated search results. The notifications and search results may take the form of an audible alarm, voice, textual display, or graphical display, among others.
In one alternative of the invention, the information service tracks a people/place state for each user, which contains a set of people (e.g., other users) and information of their locations (which also may include other “presence” information, such as availability and visibility). Preferably the set of people has the form of a buddy list, which is a list of other users that are known to the user and have mutually consented to be added to each other's buddy lists. The information service also tracks a location state for each user, such as by having each user's mobile device report that user's location to the information service. As any user moves location, the information service updates that user's location state, and also updates any people/place states whose set of users includes the moved user. When any user's people/place state changes, the information service generates a state change event which may trigger notifications to the user.
In another alternative, the user can set rules and/or parameters to control when notifications are generated based on a change event to the user's people/place state. For example, a user may set a proximity parameter designating that notifications are provided only when the other users on his or her buddy list are within a certain proximity (e.g., within a same building complex, within a certain number of miles or kilometers, etc.). As further examples, the user may set rules or parameters to enable or disable notifications, such as to prevent interruption when the user is in a meeting, involved in a task, etc.
In still another alternative, the user can set rules and/or parameters to control when information of the user's location is allowed to change other users' people/place states or result in notifications to such other users. For example, a user can set a “visibility” parameter to either a “visible” value which enables information of the user's location to change other users' people/place states, or an “invisible” value in which the user's location is not revealed in notifications to other users.
In yet another alternative, the user can segregate the other users tracked in his or her people/place state into separate subsets, such as subsets of family, friends, business contacts, co-workers, etc. Further, the user can set the rules and/or parameters that control notifications to also be based on the subset of the other user who moved. For example, the user may set a rule to receive people/place notifications as to business contacts and co-workers at certain times (e.g., during business hours), or as to family and friends at other times (e.g., evenings and weekends).
In another alternative, the system can use default rules and/or observation of user behavior to infer the user's situation and preferences.
In a further alternative, the user can define various modes consisting of a set of rules and/or parameters controlling the place-specific buddy list service, and set their mobile device to apply a selected one of the modes. For example, the user might define a social mode where notifications as to anyone on their buddy list within a larger proximity are received and the user is visible to others; a business mode in which only notifications of their business contacts and co-workers in the same building are received and the user is visible to only their business contacts and co-workers, and a private mode in which the user is visible to only a select subset of other users.
In still a further alternative, the information service can measure the location of users and their proximity based on geographical coordinates, such as may be provided by a global positioning system. Alternatively, the information service can measure location and proximity based on a place naming schema or place names registry, which may be hierarchical. This place naming registry preferably is authoritatively managed by a registry provider.
In yet a further alternative, the information service can apply default rules and/or parameters as to state change events, notifications and alerts based upon the user's location or other place-specific context. For example, default rules can be applied in a movie theatre, conference room, etc. to disallow notifications via audible alarms; or on an airplane to disallow radio transmission of the state change events, notification or alerts to the user's device during take-off and landing procedures.
In another alternative, the information service can be operated and provided by an entity as part of a business venture, which may generate revenue from such operation based on usage fees, subscription fees, advertising fees such as for delivery of commercial promotions along with the information service notifications and alerts, or promoting auxiliary services that generate revenue along with the information service operation.
Additional features and advantages will be made apparent from the following detailed description of the illustrated embodiment which proceeds with reference to the accompanying drawings.